Video Shows Hernandez, Slaying Victims At Boston Club

Former Patriot star a suspect in double homicide

September 03, 2013|By JENNY WILSON, jenwilson@courant.com

Authorities have surveillance footage that shows Aaron Hernandez and two men killed in a drive-by shooting in Boston last summer at the same establishment hours before they died, according to multiple law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation.

The video, one of the sources said, is from a Boston nightclub. Prosecutors have not filed charges in the July 2012 double homicide, but their interest in Hernandez, the former New England Patriot star from Bristol, has been widely reported.

Hernandez's lawyers could not be reached for comment.

Hernandez was charged in June with murder in the shooting death of Odin Lloyd, of Dorchester, Mass., which occurred nearly a year after the double homicide. Investigators who searched a Bristol home for evidence in that case found a vehicle, rented in Hernandez's name, that roughly matched the description of the one authorities said fled the scene after last summer's shooting in Boston's South End. Boston authorities later seized that vehicle.

Daniel Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28, both of Dorchester, were killed when their car was hit with gunfire in the early hours of July 16, 2012. The 2 a.m. shooting injured a third victim, who has not been identified. Police at the time announced they were seeking information related to a gray SUV with Rhode Island plates.

The car investigators seized in June was a silver Toyota 4Runner with Rhode Island plates, which was found during a search of a Bristol home owned by Hernandez's uncle. The car had been parked in the garage at 114 Lake Ave. for about a year.

The two Bristol men charged as Hernandez's accomplices in the Lloyd homicide used 114 Lake Ave. as an address. The residence has been searched three times this summer: twice in connection with the Lloyd investigation, and once by Boston police.

The day after the car was towed from the Lake Avenue house, Boston authorities searched Hernandez's home in North Attleborough, Mass. What they found at either location is still not clear because most records in the 2012 case are sealed.

A source said investigators also are looking at a .38-caliber pistol, seized after a June 21 multi-vehicle crash from a car driven by a Bristol woman, in connection with a case involving Hernandez.

Jai Lene Diaz-Ramos, the driver, faces three illegal firearms charges. She told police the weapon ended up in her possession after an individual known by the nickname "Chicago" and some of his friends put belongings in her trunk.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, which is heading the Boston investigation, declined comment on the surveillance tape.

The grand jury investigating the Lloyd homicide returned a six-count indictment last month that accuses Hernandez of murder and five illegal firearms charges. An arraignment for the former Patriot, who was cut from the team hours after his June 26 arrest and twice refused bail, is scheduled for Friday in Fall River Superior Court in Massachusetts.